South Pennines Ranger- 26/05/16
‘Oh wait, I’m actually going for a bash?’ was my first thought yesterday morning as the unusually late 6am alarm went up, with me clambering up, getting breakfast and actually having to get a bus into town. This was the 0651 to Newcastle Haymarket, worked by a shiny Volvo B9TL, 6109, if anyone is interested
From there it was a short stroll down to the station, and onto the platform to kill just a short while before the first train of the day. However it was more of what I’d been used to this past bash free two months first, and that was duds
43239/43300 working the 0757 to London Kings Cross, which I was to take to York. It was a busy service this morning, but I nabbed a pair of free seats for what was a strangely punctual run south, with us easily making the 80 mile journey in 57 minutes, before I crossed platforms to the sight of another stalker from the past couple months, dud
158757. This was working the 0918 to Blackpool and it was duly taken to Leeds for the princely sum of £2.65, a slog of a 44 minute journey vs the 25 or so vs TPE, but it was still pleasant enough and meant that I’d travelled from Newcastle to Leeds in the peaks for a whole £7.45
Delays were working to my advantage next though, As I made a -9 onto the delayed 0953 to Manchester Airport which was dud
185150 with dud
185125 getting towed along locked out. In the end though, it didn’t have much effect as we left 11 late and ended up 17 late into Piccadilly at 1102, versus my intended 1105 arrival.
I was then faced with a wall of duds. In the end, I jumped on double duds
142048/142056 to Gorton, as a strategic filler move. Sadly this then provided dud
142012 back again but it had us pulling in right by a busy winning
175005 on the 1130 to Carmarthen. Only my 4th recorded 175 ever so it was good to start filling the books again! It was taken to Stockport where the next service due was a delayed Pendo in the form of winner
390002 so back to Piccadilly it was for me a mere 23 minutes after leaving, and it was time to commence some quick winning moves. I absolutely legged it to Platform 14 for the 1156 Lime Street as far as Oxford Road, which had winner
319362 working. This then gave a +2 onto winner
319365 back to Piccadilly! However the running didn’t stop as I ran for winner
221139 on the 1207 to Bristol, again back to Stockport we were off! This was again timed very well indeed as I only had a few minutes until double winners
158799/158863 were arriving, and I located a seat in the relatively quiet rear carriage for the trundle back to Piccadilly.
Good cross platform here saw 350407 arrive with a delayed Airport, delaying the arrival of winners
158783/158858 ever so slightly, but soon enough we were on the move and back again to Stockport
This was again excellently timed as the 1258 from Milford Haven was approaching, worked by winner
175101. Back into Piccadilly for the 90th time and onto winner
390009 we went!
Stockport was reached for the 91st time and here the winners kind of flatlined as duds
158774/158810 appeared on the 1326 Lime Street, and on my way out here I’d noticed something I’d been chasing for a very long time! It required sitting around at Piccadilly for around 10 minutes, but capturing winner
156440 on the 1349 to Buxton had put a smile on my face once more! I then decided to position myself for a winning 150222 which was working the 1421 from Picc to Hazel Grove, or so I thought. Winner
323231 was taken next from Stockport to Heaton Chapel where I nipped into a corner shop and went back to the platforms where the RPIs were out in force, seemed to be in place of the closed ticket office!
Dud
142004 rolled in from Chester and it was duly taken to Levenshulme in order to meet the 1428 Hazel Grove which should have had 150222 on it, as I’d followed it on RTT having seen it earlier in the day. Imagine the look on my face when dud
156460 rocked up instead! Turns out that my diagramming was right, just the bugger 150 was attached to this 156 and had clearly detached somewhere! A little irritated, I worked out I should see it a little later and bailed at Stockport for the final time that day, taking winner
390114 of Techniquest fame
back to Manchester Piccadilly where I decided on another Oxford Road move. Annoyingly I’d set myself up to get the same 319s again as dud
319362 took me there, but indeed, I chose to stay put for the return as a very late running
350410 came rolling in! I worked out I could then very quickly have another go as I dived onto a dud
185136 back to Oxford Road which then had me neatly connecting with double winners
150136/150143 to Piccadilly again! I now needed food and a break before I commenced my next line of attack, and I also needed to grab a sim card that I could use in Germany (my flight is in 16 hours, at the time of writing!). All that was quickly done, and I picked up a bottle of water and a pasty on the way back to the station.
Next up was a busy and mega mega Heaton dud
142027 on the 1549 to Sheffield. It was duly taken however to shack 1, Marple. Yes, first shack all day
It was a pretty bouncy slog, but I made it there in one piece and now had a 15 minute fester around a whole lot of nothing before the 1616 to New Mills. I ended up wandering up the platform umpteen times before dud
142012 took me on the short scenic hop to shack 2, Strines. Quite an awkward one to get, this one! Thankfully the evening peak meant that after a 10 minute wait surveying the whole lot of nothing around this station and reading the very angry local noticeboard, I was back on 142012 to shack 3, Ryder Brow. At crappy old Brinnington some local chav offspring joined us and tried to escape the fare, but their sheer stupidity was amazing! Most people would try to avoid the fare if travelling a very short distance, and if they knew it was unstaffed either end. Indeed, these kids wailed about only going to Reddish North and how they’d ‘left their tickets on the seat’, but no, they were going to Manchester Piccadilly
. It was actually quite funny, as later that evening, I noted them being escorted back onto a train from Piccadilly to Brinnington! Clearly the revenue blocks noticed them.
Ryder Brow was insanely quiet and honestly, depressing. I also now only had 9 minutes to run to Belle Vue, the world’s most ironic station name. There was nothing beautiful about this area as I darted my way through the backstreets and onto the main road before finding myself on a completely deserted shack 4, the aforementioned Belle Vue. That said though, I’m hardly surprised. There’s only 1 train every 2 hours, and considering the bus service levels, it’s very much a Dunston situation where there’s little incentive to use the train, considering the majority of services calling only go to Marple. Anyway, I had double duds
142052/150274 on the short leap to shack 5, Reddish North. 150274 continues to be an absolute dump. The seats are stained, the door buttons falling apart, and we still had a missing internal door. Reddish North itself wasn’t a lot better, providing a rather depressing 10 minute wait for double duds
142038/142062 all the way to shack 6, New Mills Central. And that, ladies and gents, completes the line from Manchester to New Mills Central via Bredbury. Now we just need to go onwards and get the ones via Hyde before getting Chinley and beyond scratched
Conveniently, the aforementioned 142 pairing formed the 1747 fast service back to Manchester, calling only at Marple and Romiley. It took only 22 minutes to roar our way back to Piccadilly where I then noticed that my intended 1826 to Leeds had been cancelled. Right, time for an Oxford Road spin then! Dud
350409 was my only choice however, and it was heaving! I squeezed on for the short hop before winner
175105 trundled in for the run back to Piccadilly. Nice extra winner there and it was time to go located the 1841 to Hull which was just arriving in, formed of dud
185114. It was a pretty busy run too through to Leeds for 1937 where I nipped into Sainsbury’s for something to eat before heading to Platform 14A and joining the £2 1952 to York. Dud
158851 was my haulage for this one, and it was a very peaceful journey indeed! Not a lot going on as we arrived a little behind schedule at 2028, and I had one more journey to make. The past few months I’d normally gone for dirt cheap TPEs when seeing my girlfriend, but I was *treating* myself to a cosier dud
220005 on the 2048 to Newcastle tonight! This was mainly because it was the only reasonably priced service left
It was however very punctual as we powered our way north for 2144, and I joined the haulage of my Dad’s Fiat Panda back home
Just what the doctor ordered, really!
Total Mileage: 417mi 36ch
Total Winners: 17+6 Shacks
Total Cost: £37.45
That's 1 down, 3 to go and thankfully it was the hardest one first...and it was rather easy 
